Watch our baby grow!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

From now on you can find updates at our new blog: "The Eli and Abby Show" - go ahead and update your bookmarks, because though this blog will still exist, from this point on all new posts will be there. Thanks for checking in, and thanks for your prayers!

One of our very favorite things about Eli's age is the conversations we can have with him, and the things he comes up with to say on his own. He cracks us up constantly, he is such a funny kid...and not only with his words, but also his antics. One of Eli's favorite pasttimes is "naked racing." This has become a nightly ritual as soon as he's out of the bath and dry. He asks one of us to say "ready, set, go" and off he goes! Sometimes he runs laps around the living room, sometimes just back and forth between the bathroom and playroom. As if that weren't funny enough, he has decided to add some other naked activities to his repertoire. He and Dada often "wrassle" in the evenings, and he now wants to "naked wrassle." Finally, the funniest one...Eli likes to look at websites (specifically Thomas and Curious George), and the other night in the midst of his naked racing he ran past the computer, paused, and said "want to look at a naked website!" He clearly meant he wanted to look at a website naked, but Ryan and I were cracking up over what actually came out of Eli's mouth!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Well, I think we're ready...we have diapers, all the baby stuff has been cleaned and sanitized, my induction is scheduled for Tuesday, and yesterday I finally finished our little girl's nursery! I'm so excited - it is so cute! Here are some photos...

I think we did a pretty good job of making it a very girly room despite the blue carpet and walls!Now we just need a little girl to put in there! :)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

I'm late with a post - what's new? :) We hope you all enjoyed a beautiful and blessed Resurrection Sunday! We thank God for the amazing gift of salvation! We enjoyed our first Easter at our new church (you may remember from our Christmas letter that we're part of a church plant in downtown Bellevue called The Downtown Church). We enjoyed serving in Eli's classroom that day and seeing all the precious children dressed up in their Easter clothes - so cute! All the little girls in their adorable Easter dresses made me very excited about buying one for my own daughter next year! :) After nap time we headed to Nana and Pa's house for an egg hunt and a wonderful dinner. Eli had a great time finding his treasures hidden around the houseand was delighted to find lots of M&Ms hiding inside the eggs. He definitely had more sugar that day than he's ever had in one day before!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

On the last of our three beautiful spring days last week, Eli and I headed to a new park. Issaquah's Depot Park is train-themed, and therefore right up Eli's alley! There's an old train depot that's now a museum, and a couple of retired engines and train cars to walk around and look at. Additionally, there's a great train-themed playground. Eli and I brought lunch to the park and had a wonderful picnic by the trains before heading to the playground. I was surprised that he didn't want his picture taken with the trains; I guess it was because they were so big close up. He had a great time looking around though, and tons of fun at the playground. Two of his favorite things were the big curly slide and this really unique (and safe!) swing. My favorite thing was the flowers. We'll definitely be back to this park a lot this summer!

Monday, April 13, 2009

I figure I better get a few posts in while I can. Once Abby arrives I'm sure my posts will be even fewer and far between than they are now!

For the past three months Eli and I have spent our Monday mornings at Gymboree. We signed him up for classes as a Christmas present, and it has been a really great experience! We only have a couple more weeks, as we'll be done at the end of April, but Eli has really enjoyed it! The Gymboree play equipment is great, and the classes are theme-based. For example, last week the theme was "Around Town," so the equipment was set up to recreate a town with a park, a library, a bank, etc. The 45-minute class engages the kids' imaginations and incorporates lots of different physical activities as the kids pretend to check out and return books at the library, stock the shelves at the video store, play at the park, visit the bank, etc. Each theme is two weeks long, and then they completely change around the equipment so that it's really a totally different environment the next week. They do a really great job. Classes always end with parachute and bubble play, which they somehow manage to incorporate into the theme every time (last week it was a car wash). We're definitely going to miss Gymboree!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Last weekend we were blessed with three absolutely gorgeous spring days! Sunday was over seventy degrees, which was remarkable in and of itself (and made all the more remarkable by the fact that we'd woken up to snow just two days earlier!).

After church we headed straight to Nana and Pa's house to enjoy the sunshine together. There was a little carnival just a half mile from their house, and after a wonderful lunch we headed out for a lovely walk to the carnival. Eli had a great time running in the sunshine and playing games with Nana. One of his favorite games lately is running a few feet ahead of me, then when I catch up telling me with a big grin, "I ran so fast Mama couldn't even catch up!"Once we got to the carnival Eli spent some time just taking in the sights. He had no interest in riding the rides, but lots of interest in watching other kids ride! He seemed to particularly enjoy watching the mini roller coaster - maybe he'll grow up to love them. He was definitely interested in the game section. He found the skee-ball game right away, a favorite because it's "just like the game at Chuck E. Cheese!" After a round of skee-ball, Eli and Nana tried their hand at the water-shooting game (I imagine it probably has an actual name, but I don't know what it is!). Eli won a stuffed purple gorilla, and had a great time doing it. Finally, Dada decided to try his own hand at one of the games. You can't read the sign in this photo, but it says "hoops are not regulation." After missing a shot that really should have made it, Ryan decided that this referred not only to the size of the hoop, but also the shape! We were actually a bit relieved that he missed - you can't quite make out the size of the prizes at this game, but we don't exactly need a four foot tall tiger in our house! We all had a very fun day, and really enjoyed being out in the sun!!

Eli's cameos on Emily's blog

Hello trouble!

Okay, so in reality the t-shirt isn't very appropriate for our mellow-mannered Eli, but it's still cute! Eli had a great time hanging out at Dada's track meet the other day. He likes to watch the "grirls runnin" (and no, those aren't typos!).

Favorite Photo

This picture was taken by the father of one of Ryan's basketball players back in December. Needless to say, it is currently my favorite photo! Way to melt a mommy's heart!

Ta Da!

This little boy loves his Dada, and wants to be just like him...right down to the clothes. He often chooses his clothes based on which are most like Dada's, and this day just decided to stick with Dada's own clothes!

Neigh Neigh

Eli gave all new meaning to the term "bareback riding" after his bath last night. He thought it was pretty hilarious!

Eli the tool man

Our friends down the street gave Eli this great Bob the Builder tool belt and construction hat set for Christmas. Needless to say, it's a new favorite! You rarely see him without pliers in his hand these days. :)

Christmas joy!

Eli had a great Christmas...and that smile sure made our day!

Can I color this?

Two of Eli's favorite activities: coloring and unzipping pajamas. On this particular morning while coloring and unzipping his pajamas, he became quite interested in his belly button.

I thought we cut that hair!

The above caption is actually what Ryan said when he walked in and saw our little mohawk man. Needless to say, bathtime is one of Eli's favorite times!

Whoa! Where did my hair go?

Yay, dough!

Who needs Play-Doh when you can have real pizza dough? Eli wasn't sure about the strange stuff he was given to play with during our dinner at Frankie's restaurant at first, but after awhile he got into it! Oh, and look at those long, curly locks!!

Perfect Fall Photo

I have a question!

While Eli was "reading" his book about fossils, he suddenly looked up and raised his hand, just like a student with a question! What a cutie!

Hay Ride

Our visit to Jubilee Farm included a wagon ride to their pumpkin patch. Eli's favorite part? The tractor pulling the wagon, of course!

Family fun in Moclips

We all love the beach! The four of us (you can barely see Zoe at the bottom of the pic) spent three days on the WA coast to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. It was a perfect getaway!

A boy and his bike...

Our neighbor, whose son is about to turn 4, passed on a great little trike to Eli. He absolutely loves his new wheels!

Blackberry Boy

Eli's favorite summertime snack!

Dada!

Every time Eli sees a lawn mower, he says "Dada!" This one actually belongs to our neighbors. :)